TotalEnergies issues tenders for 500,000 mt/year of green hydrogen in Europe

TotalEnergies has issued a call for tenders for the supply of 500,000 mt/year of green hydrogen to help decarbonize its European refinery operations, the company said in a statement Sept. 14.

The renewable hydrogen will be used to replace conventional hydrogen in the company's six European refineries and two biorefineries, avoiding around 5 million mt/year of CO2 emissions by 2030.

"This massive call for tenders is fully aligned with TotalEnergies' ambition to decarbonize all of the hydrogen used in its European refineries by 2030," CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in the statement.

"Alongside other green and low carbon hydrogen production projects that the company is already undertaking at La Mede, Grandpuits, Leuna and Normandy, we are now approaching third-party providers to supply us with green hydrogen to accelerate the decarbonization of our operations."

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the cost of producing renewable hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in Europe at Eur6.10/kg ($6.55/kg) Sept. 13 (Netherlands, including capex), based on month-ahead power prices. Proton exchange membrane electrolysis production was assessed at Eur7.17/kg, while unabated fossil fuel-based hydrogen production via steam methane reforming (including capex and carbon) was Eur3.02/kg.

Air Liquide supply agreement

Alongside the tender, TotalEnergies and Air Liquide separately signed a long-term supply agreement for green and low-carbon hydrogen to the Gonfreville refining and petrochemicals plant in Normandy, France.

Air Liquide will supply 10,000 mt/year of green hydrogen and up to 5,000 mt/year of low-carbon "blue" hydrogen starting in the second half of 2026.

Platts assessed the cost of blue hydrogen production at a small premium to conventional production, just 7 euro cent/kg higher at Eur3.09/kg (including capex and carbon).

The green hydrogen will come from Air Liquide's 200-MW Normand'Hy electrolyzer, accounting for half of the production capacity, with the other half going to other local industries and the mobility sector.

TotalEnergies will supply around 700 GWh/year of renewable and low-carbon power to the electrolyzer, accounting for its half of production capacity.

"By supplying the electrolyzer with renewable electricity from solar and wind projects, TotalEnergies is making the most of its positioning as an integrated power supplier," TotalEnergies President for Refining and Chemicals, Bernard Pinatel, said in a separate statement.

Air Liquide plans to sign long-term renewable power purchase agreements for the remainder of the electrolyzer power demand, complemented by low-carbon grid power, it said.

It will feed hydrogen into its local hydrogen network from the Port-Jerome industrial zone.

It is investing over Eur400 million in the project, and has received 190 million in support from the French government, as part of the Hy2Use scheme under the EU's Important Projects of Common European Interest.

Refinery decarbonization

TotalEnergies operates six refineries in Europe: Antwerp (Belgium), Leuna (Germany), Zeeland (Netherlands), Normandy, Donges and Feyzin (France), as well as the La Mede and Grandpuits biorefineries in France, all of which use hydrogen in the fuel production process.

TotalEnergies said the tender was a "major step" towards reducing Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions from its oil and gas operations by 40% by 2030, compared to 2015 levels.

In November 2022, the company signed another partnership agreement with Air Liquide to produce 20,000 mt/year of hydrogen for its Grandpuits plant, that it said was "partly renewable," due to recycling of residual biogas from the facility.

In June, it signed a supply agreement with Germany's VNG for green hydrogen for its Leuna refinery.

And the company said it is progressing its Masshylia green hydrogen project at La Mede with Engie.

The EU is targeting 10 million mt/year of domestic renewable hydrogen production in addition to 10 million mt/year of imports, with much of the production expected to go to the refining and fertilizer sectors.

It has also set a target for at least 1% of energy consumption in the transport sector to come from renewable hydrogen, as well as a 42% share for renewable hydrogen used in industry.

S&P Global analysts said the targets implied hydrogen demand of around 5 million to 10 million mt/year.